Analysis on the fracture failure in crack interaction of mortar using the phase-field method

This article introduces a new mortar fracture analysis method based on the phase-field method,which is used to analyze the fracture failure in crack interaction of mortar.The non-conserved Allen-Cahn equation was adopted as the system governing equation to study the crack development and interaction in mortar.Both the linear elasticity and phase-field equations were solved in a unified finite element frame work,which was implemented in the commercial software COMSOL.Direct tension test and three-point bending test were performed for validation.It is discovered that the critical load of crack interaction by the phase-field method agrees very well with the experimental results.Research results show that Mode Ⅱ specimen tends to have a longer crack path.